Mistaken
by Triscribe
Summary: Contrary to Zeb's uneasy claim and the Ghost crew's faint hopes, the Imperials did not, in fact, go easy on Ezra due to his age. Spark of Rebellion AU in which the rescue scene goes very differently.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I only recently started watching the Rebels series, and already I'm in love. These characters will be prominently placed in the other Star Wars stories I'm working on, but for now, I wanted a darker spin on what could have happened with Ezra's capture in the premiere. So, without further adue, I give you 'Mistaken'!_

 _-Triscribe_

"Your orders, Agent Kallus?"

"Search the boy. Take anything you find, and move him to Interrogation Room 7-B. I'll have an officer and mind probe droid waiting for you."

"Yes, sir."

-M-

"Where are the insurgents hiding?"

"I d-don't- _hn_ -don't know!"

"What plans do they have?"

"I d-don't kn-know! I j-just met th-them! _Argh!"_

"You will tell us eventually. You're the one drawing this out, subjecting yourself to further pain. This ends as soon as you start answering our questions."

"P-please... I don't kn- AHH!"

-M-

"Sabine, haven't you hacked that directory yet?" Kanan didn't bother to look at the teen as he asked, instead continuing to fire at the troopers down the hall. They'd encountered resistance just as soon as he'd feared, and the secret Jedi prayed it wasn't an omen of doom for their rescue mission.

"Got it! Looks like... They've got the kid in an interrogation cell, seventh sector. That's right above us!"

"Then get going. Zeb, follow her. I'll hold the line here."

-M-

When they reached the right door, Sabine started to splice the control panel, only for Zeb to beat her to the punch. Literally. He slammed his bo-rifle into the metal panels with enough strength to bend them inwards, creating an opening on the third hit. Then the Lasat grabbed both sides and pushed them apart with his bare hands.

Inside was far worse than they'd hoped for.

Ezra was unconscious, strapped to a torture table with a gridwork of burns and lacerations stretching up his chest and upper arms. There were hypo punctures by his elbow joints, and the boy's normally chestnut skin was far too pale.

"Kharabast, kid..." As Zeb moved forward, Sabine averted her eyes, and happened to catch sight of a familiar knapsack, its contents scattered across another table. The teen busied herself for a few seconds gathering it all back in again. By the time she turned around, Zeb was carefully lifting Ezra into his arms and frowning more deeply when the boy didn't even twitch.

"Let's go."

-M-

"Well, well, well," Kallus grinned as he and his men cornered the Lasat and Mandalorian girl, both of them trying to hide their injured friend from view. "It seems the boy was wrong after all - you _did_ come back for him."

The girl's face was, of course, hidden from view, but the way her body tensed up even further was all too obvious, along with the Lasat's sudden flicker of shame across his expression.

"Although, perhaps you almost didn't. I'll be honest, rebels, none of you have a very good chance of making it out of here intact. Even if you do survive our intensive questioning, imprisonment will follow."

"What's your point, buckethead?" The girl increased the setting on her blasters, their high-pitched whine rebounding through the hall.

"That you have lost. The only way off this ship for you now is in Imperial custody; either on a prisoner transport, or in body bags."

"That's _assuming_ you capture us, slag-sucking Imp." Snarling, the Lasat cradled his charge with one massive arm while bringing up his weapon with the other. "Maybe I'll take your bloody head off with my first shot-"

"Maybe I'll send you all off with the wookies you love so dearly, working the spice mines of Kessel until you expire from exertion." He sneered at the boy they were still trying to protect. "How long do you think that one will last, weak as he already is?"

Bellowing, the Lasat opened fire, his companion following suit a split second later.

Those of Kallus' men that weren't struck down in an instant separated to either side of the hallway, shooting back. None of them saw the incoming attacker until after several of their number were taken down from behind.

Cursing, Kallus swung about to fire at the third rebel, but the additional opponent was enough of a distraction that the Lasat was able to flee with his charge, the others retreating shortly afterward.

"After them!"

-M-

Caught up in the flight from the troopers, Kanan didn't have a chance to look at Ezra properly until they were back on the _Ghost._ Zeb went in first, willingly and without being told, heading straight for the medbay. Sabine and Kanan continued firing until Chopper closed the hatch. The two humans paused for a moment to let their pulses stop racing, before they followed after their larger crewmate.

Second-degree burns, not as damaging as third, but more painful to recover from. Cuts that didn't extend too far into the muscle, but would definitely leave very visible scars. There was bloody skin, rubbed raw, where the restraints had dug in as the kid struggled. And deep bruises were already forming on both sides of his face, likely where he'd been slapped and smacked several times for mouthing off.

It was all so much better than Kanan had imagined before the rescue operation, because at least Ezra was still breathing.

And yet at the same time, it was so much worse, because a small, naive part of Kanan that still responded to the name Caleb Dume had been hoping Zeb was right, that the Imperials would leave a child alone.

After she'd gotten them into hyperspace, Hera had come down to the medbay as well, only to freeze in the doorway. She stared at Ezra for a good ten seconds, stunned and horrified. Then her mother hen mode went active, and the twi'lek was a blur as she went about retrieving and applying the proper medical materials.

Recognizing that it was his partner's way of coping, Kanan guided the subdued Zeb and silent Sabine back out into the hallway. Even Chopper was quieter than usual.

"I shouldn't have let that agent grab him," the Lasat murmured, his tone more upset than angry. "This is on my head."

"It's on the Empire's head, Zeb," Kanan responded tiredly.

"It wasn't the Empire who voted not to go get him." Sabine's voice was bitter. The teen had yet to remove her helmet, but Kanan didn't need to see her expression to know she was beating herself up over that particular decision.

"Hey. _Hey."_ He grabbed the teen's shoulder as she started to turn away, forcing to look at him. "Sabine. You might not have been willing at first, but once Hera and I started planning, you jumped in. You didn't chose to sit this one out. And once we were in the mission, you went all out to make sure we found the kid and got him out."

She muttered something too softly for Kanan to hear.

"What?"

"Ezra. His name's Ezra."

"You're right. And we'll start calling him by it."

-M-

Waking up was... painful. And yet, not nearly much as he'd been expecting. For one thing, Ezra could tell he was lying horizontally, not at an angle. And for another, he was on a semi-comfortable surface. When the next detail filtered through that he wasn't being held in place anymore either, it was enough to cause the boy's eyes to snap open.

Plain grey ceiling, a lighter color than had been in his cell.

Glancing around, he took in the brightly lit room, guessing it to be a medical bay from the handful of equipment present. What really startled him was the presence of a very familiar twi'lek slumped over the edge of the cot, sleeping with one of her hands resting atop his own.

"Hera?" The boy whispered, stunned. Before he could try further to wake her up, the door slid open, revealing a very tired looking Kanan. It was only after taking a few steps into the little med bay that the man noticed he was being watched. His feet faltered, eyes widening as he stared at Ezra, who stared back.

"...Kid?" He asked tentatively. "You're really awake? Not just sleeping with your eyes open to creep me out?"

Ezra snorted. "I'm not _that_ talented." Some of the tension went out of Kanan's shoulders then, and he moved closer to the cot.

"How are you feeling, Ezra?" As well as he could, the boy shrugged.

"Stiff? Sore? Not hurting as much as-" _burning lines of pain across his chest, blood dripping from his wrists and ankles_ "- as much as I'd thought I'd be."

"Yeah, well, that's because you've still got the heavy painkillers in your system. We don't have too much of that stuff, though, so we'll need to switch to the more moderate meds in a day or two."

Ezra stared at him, perplexed. "But- but that means I'd have to stay here... Doesn't it?"

"Sure does, kid. You're stuck with us, at least until you're healed up." Kanan rubbed self-consciously at the back of his neck.

"...Why?"

"In part, as a thank you for warning us when the rescue job went bad. Also in part, as an apology, for Zeb making the call to- to bail out on you." The man sighed. "But mostly because you seem like a decent kid, who's had a tough time of it and could use someone looking out for him."

Unexpectedly, Ezra found himself blinking back a wetness in his eyes.

"Look, whether you stick around once you're better is up to you, but I'm hoping that in the meantime we can make a decent enough argument to get you to stick around." That was when he held up the cube thing Ezra had stolen from the man's room, causing a deep flush of embarrassment to spread across the teen's face. "Starting with this. I'm going to leave it with you for now, if you promise to focus on it from time to time."

"Uh, sure?"

"Good enough. Get some rest, kid - Hera's not likely to leave you alone much over the next few days, so you'll need all the energy you can get to put up with her."

"I h'rd tha' y'jerk." Both of them grinned at the sleepy twi'lek, who was just lifting her head up and blinking blearily. "'zra?"

"Hi, Hera. Guess you missed me, huh?" She smiled at him, even reached up a hand to run through his dark hair. The gesture took Ezra by surprise. He didn't flinch away, but he didn't lean into it, either.

"If you need anything, make sure to tell me, okay?" Hera looked intently into his eyes. "I'd say to ask any of the others, but somehow I think they'll be too ashamed of what happened to come in and face you for a while."

"O-okay? Thanks," he wasn't going to be able to wrap his head around that for a while, either.

The adults kept talking in soft voices for a bit, but Ezra found himself drifting off back into sleep, and didn't remember anything else that what was said.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: This second installation of Mistaken comes courtesy of my wonderful reviewers, as well as all of you who faved or followed. I'm glad to see that this is a pretty strong fandom, and look forward to seeing your reactions regarding my other newly-posted Star Wars tales as well._

 _Please enjoy!_

 _-Triscribe_

Chapter 2

 _Burning, questions he couldn't answer, bleeding, a hand gripping his jaw, bruising, needles piercing his skin, screaming-_

"EZRA!" Jerking awake with a gasp, the boy looked up into wide, golden eyes,

"S-sabine?"

"You were having a nightmare," she answered his unspoken question. "A bad one, by the looks of it." Ezra pushed himself upright with a groan.

All three nights since he'd been rescued from the Imperials, bad dreams inevitably woke him up after only a few hours of sleep. Hera was concerned that the nightmares were impeding his recovery, and make the decision to have a crewmember present with their newcomer at all times.

"Do- do you want to talk about it?" Sabine asked quietly. Ezra shook his head without a word, just folded in on himself at the head of the cot. He'd only left the med bay a couple of times, walking to the kitchen and back with Hera's help. The rest of the time he was confined to bed, either fiddling with his odds and ends, or messing around with the cube Kanan gave him.

"Well... I'm here. If you decide you want to." Returning to her seat, Sabine pulled out a small book and an ink pen. She started working on something, making several quick, small strokes, unaware or else ignoring Ezra's curious gaze.

He waited a while before speaking up. "What are you doing?"

"Shh!" Brows furrowed and tongue sticking out from the corner of her mouth, Sabine didn't even look at him as she continued scribbling. Ezra scowled, and was about to roll over and go back to sleep when the older teen grinned triumphantly and held the book out for him to see.

The boy's eyebrows shot up when he saw the portrait of himself, sitting against not a wall, but a window, looking out on what had to be the grassy plains of Lothal.

"Wow..."

"You can have it now, if you want." Sabine said with a small smile. "Or I can hang onto it for a bit longer, add some color, maybe even make a painting rendition of it."

"This is... Just, wow. Thanks." Ezra ducked his head, grinning. "Copy it all you want, but I like it just like this, too."

"I'm glad."

-M-

Zeb managed to avoid the kid for nearly a week, but then Hera lost her patience with the Lasat and somehow forced him into the med bay for a visit. She didn't use her blaster, or the Force, but it would later be sworn that her glare had a power all its own.

Standing awkwardly just inside the door, Zeb shifted from one foot to the other as Ezra looked up in surprise.

"Er... Hi."

"Hi, Zeb," the kid was wary, and the Lasat didn't blame him.

"I just, um, wanted to, apologize, again, for leaving you behind." He rubbed at the back of his head. "I should have kept us moving faster, or least had you in front of me. I'm sorry."

Ezra stared at him in silence for a good two minutes, causing Zeb to grow even more twitchy and anxious. After all, if this apology didn't go well, Hera would skin him alive...

"It's fine, Zeb." The boy finally said. "I get it. Really."

"Yeah? Well. Okay then. You need anything, or should I just go-?"

The kid eyed him contemplatively. "I don't suppose there's any frozen freri on this ship, is there?"

Zeb blinked. "Uh, yeah, I think so. There's usually a tub in the back of the cold storage unit." He blinked again as Ezra's face lit up.

"Could you bring me some? I haven't had that stuff in years!"

-M-

Kanan didn't think much of it when Zeb entered the kitchen area, an odd expression on his face. The Jedi didn't really notice anything was up until after his crewmate scooped a portion of the frozen freri treat into a bowl, and started to leave with it.

"Zeb...?" From the Lasat's grimace, Kanan knew his question must be obvious.

"The kid asked if we had any," came the quiet mumble, followed by Zeb's quick exit. Kanan stared after him, baffled. Then he started to grin.

"What are you smiling about?" Hera asked when she came in a few minutes later.

"I think Ezra and Zeb are finally connecting." It was all he had to say on the matter, no matter how much the twi'lek pushed him to explain.

-M-

They wanted him to stay put on the ship during their mission to rescue the wookies, but even before Hera finished explaining Ezra knew he was going to disobey. There was just something telling him that he had to, that there was a good reason for it.

He'd managed to open the cube thing the night before, after just focusing on it like Kanan said. Ezra had wanted to jump up straight away and tell the man, but that was before listening to a message from a guy who called himself Obi-wan Kenobi. Afterward, the boy decided to wait a while and think on it all, maybe not say anything until after the rescue mission so as not to distract his newfound benefactor.

Then the feeling came, and he made sure to sneak off the _Ghost_ after the rest of the crew, leaving Hera to think he was waiting anxiously in the med bay.

And luck of all luck, it turned out to be a good thing he was there.

Watching Kanan step forward with the lightsaber, blocking and tossing back blaster bolts, was the most incredible thing Ezra had ever seen. But it wasn't enough to distract him when a little wookie ran off from the battle, being chased by a stormtrooper.

Despite the lingering effects of his injuries, Ezra was able to catch up to them on a bridge out over the canyon beside the base. Then, the same thing that had told him to sneak out, the- the _force_ that had let him open up the cube, helped him with jumping over the startled trooper, landing in front of the baby wookie. He blasted away their pursuer, and turned to comfort the trembling furball.

"It's okay, little guy," Ezra tried to sound calm, despite how tired he was feeling. "Everything's fine-"

"Well now, I certainly wasn't expecting to see _you_ again." The cold, mocking voice of Agent Kallus came from behind him, freezing Ezra into place.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: I know, I know, I'm a horrible person. But cliffhangers are such useful tools, they make you guys want to come back and find out what the heck happened to your beloved characters. And considering you're here and reading this, I consider it to have been worthwhile._

 _This will be the final chapter of Mistaken, which is sad for some of you, I know. Hopefully, though, you'll have considered this to be a good enough read that you'll go take a look at my other new Rebels story, Jumpstart. (First chapter features an adorable seven year old Ezra!)_

 _Well, I'll let you all get back to this tale now. Enjoy!_

 _-Triscribe_

Chapter 3

"Well now, I certainly wasn't expecting to see _you_ again." The cold, mocking voice of Agent Kallus came from behind him, freezing Ezra into place. He whirled about, bringing up his energy slingshot to aim at the Imperial officer. "Not all that bright, are you, boy?"

"Stay back," Ezra warned.

"Or what? You'll shoot me with that little toy of yours?" Kallus laughed. "I caught you once, Loth-rat, and I'll catch you again just as easily. We'll see how well you stand up to a second round on interrogation."

"N-no-"

"And this time, your friends won't be able to come save you." His breath coming faster, Ezra tried to grit his teeth and ignore the turbulent memories resurfacing with the agent's words. Skin only recently healed began to prickle unpleasantly, and it was all the boy could do not to heave the contents of his stomach across the walkway.

"Or perhaps, this time, they won't _want_ to,' continued Kallus. "I saw how they looked during your rescue - as if they didn't want to be there in the first place. Why would they bother coming to save you again if this sort of thing's just going to keep happening?"

Trembling, Ezra released his weak grip on the slingshot, grabbing onto the railing just to stay upright. "Th-they- I was wrong, before- they do care- they _do-"_

"Really? Then why are you the only one out here?"

"Because the kid's faster than I am." Jerking with surprise, Kallus barely managed to avoid the blaster fire from Kanan, standing on top of the _Ghost_ as it rose up level to the bridge. "And you're not gonna lay another finger on him."

The Imperial tried firing at the Jedi, only to be Force-thrown over the railing. Ezra, nearly giddy with relief, didn't have time to do anything but sigh before Kanan was standing in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Hands skimmed over Ezra's arms and shoulders, coming to rest on either side of his head. They tilted his gaze upward, so that wide blue eyes met fearful green. "Ezra?"

"I'm fine," he choked out. "C-can we leave now?"

-M-

Ezra managed to hold himself together until they were all back on the ship and in hyperspace. Once he saw the little wookie was back with the others, the boy promptly retreated to an empty hallway, where he sank down against one wall. It was there that he allowed himself to release the pent up fear caused by encountering Kallus again.

Only a minute or two into this, Kanan and Hera appeared at the end of the hall. Wordlessly, they each took up a position on either side of him, offering silent support that Ezra had never been more grateful for.

He didn't want to admit to any lingering weakness from his brief stint as a prisoner of the Empire. His physical injuries were all but gone, only scars and sore muscles remaining. But the mental... Coming face to face with the man who'd been present all through his interrogation made it all too clear to Ezra that he wasn't close to fully recovered.

Kanan's arm around his shoulder prompted him to lean into the man's side, while both his hands sought out Hera's and clung on. Again, neither of the adults made any verbal mention of it, but Ezra could practically feel the emotional anchors they were extending to him. This was something they knew he needed, that they were willing to give.

-M-

Kanan didn't approach him about the cube until the evening after the wookies left. After a conversation concerning the Force, a certain lightsaber, and a couple details about becoming Jedi, Ezra made his decision.

"I want to learn."

They announced it to the others at dinner that night, and earned several smiles in return. "Looks like you're stuck with us now, kid!" Sabine grinned.

"So, where's he gonna sleep then?" Zeb wondered aloud. "Not like he can stay in the med bay forever..."

"Thank you for your concern, Zeb. He can share with you." Hera ignored the Lasat's attempt at retreat, instead moving to give Ezra a hug - and this time, he returned it wholeheartedly.

He'd been mistaken back on the Star Destroyer, when informing Kallus that no one would come back for him. And Ezra had never been more glad to be so wrong.


End file.
